


S.R. 819

by scullywolf



Series: TXF: Scenes in Between [127]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-06
Updated: 2016-04-06
Packaged: 2018-05-31 15:42:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6476212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullywolf/pseuds/scullywolf





	S.R. 819

_“Are you gonna be all right, sir?”_

When she was in the hospital last year, after the test results showed that her cancer had gone into remission, Scully made a promise to her mother. She promised that, to the extent that her travel schedule allowed, they would spend more time together. It hasn’t always been easy, but she has done her best to make herself available at least a few times a month for some sort of mother-daughter activity.

Which is why, when her phone rings at nearly 10:30 on a Tuesday night, she and Maggie are in her car on their way back from a book club meeting in Silver Spring.

In the split-second her eyes are off the road, she recognizes the number on the caller ID as Skinner’s office line, and she frowns as she presses the button to answer. “This is Agent Scully.”

“Hey, Scully, it’s me.” Mulder’s voice takes her by surprise.

“Mulder? I thought I saw Skinner’s number come up.”

“Yeah, I’m here in his office. Listen, Scully, I think you should come take a look at him.”

She can hear an irritated, “Damn it, Mulder, I’m fine,” in the background.

“Mulder, what’s going on?”

There is a pause. “I’d rather not discuss it over the phone. Can you just come down here?”

She frowns again; Mulder’s evasiveness is either cause for annoyance or worry, and it’s impossible to tell which without knowing his motivations. “I’m at least twenty minutes away, and I have to take my mom home first. Is it an emergency?”

Another pause. “Doesn’t look that way, no. But I’d feel a lot better getting your opinion on the situation.”

“All right, well, I’ll get there as soon as I can.” She hangs up the phone with a frustrated sigh and looks over at her mother, who is watching her with concern.

“Everything all right, Dana?”

“I hope so. Something’s come up at the office, but it sounds like it can wait until I’ve taken you home.”

“Goodness, at this time of night?” Maggie shakes her head. “That’s asking rather a lot, isn’t it?”

 _You’re telling me_ , Scully wants to say, but doesn’t. Her mom never disapproved of her career choice to the same extent that her father did, but Scully has still felt a need to defend her job and her commitment to it, especially after her illness.

“A friend might need my help,” she says instead.

“Fox?” 

She shakes her head. She’s given up trying to tell her mother not to call her partner by his first name, but it still sounds wrong every time. Mulder, at least, doesn’t seem to mind too much.

“Someone Mulder and I used to work with.” 

“And it can’t wait until morning?”

“Apparently not.” Her mom means well, she knows, but it still gets under her skin; Maggie wouldn’t ask questions like that if Scully worked in a hospital. “But what were you saying, before I answered the phone?”

They return to safer topics of conversation -- grandkids and Maggie’s upcoming trip out to visit Bill & Tara in California -- and for the rest of the drive, Scully does her best to push work and Mulder’s worrying phone call from her mind. Once she drops her mom at home and turns around to head back to the Hoover Building, she finally allows herself to wonder whether this is going to turn into one of those nights where she never actually makes it back to her apartment to sleep.


End file.
